06.05.2026
Golders Green Attacks: A Muslim Was Also Stabbed - Not That You'd Know

A Muslim man, Ishmail Hussein, was stabbed in London last Wednesday. His alleged assailant has now been apprehended and charged with attempted murder.

But you wouldn't necessarily know that if you read the headlines, watched the breaking news reports, or listened to the opinions of the commentariat and the political class.

That's because the accused, Essa Suleiman, was the same man charged with stabbing two Jewish men later that day in the city's Golders Green area, home to a large Jewish population.

It's not that the British media didn't report the attack on Hussein at all. They did, a little - but it was buried deep in articles or mentioned as a quick addendum to the story of what happened in Golders Green.

As someone who has spent my entire career in the news business, I can hear the machinery of their minds as they made those calls: it's overcomplicated. It would ruin the headlines. It would kill the story.

And there's a fear that leads to self-censorship - a fear of Israel supporters in the media and politics. It's a fear of the pro-Israel lobby and its many powerful backers in Britain; a fear of being on the "wrong" side, of being called an antisemite.

This coverage is also the product of a worldview of an elite media class who, whether they admit it or not, believe that what happened in Golders Green is more important than what happened earlier in the day in Southwark. They know that the stabbing of Hussein complicates the story, as does the fact that in 2008, Suleiman stabbed two police officers and a police dog.